The Kindness of Strangers

It's been interesting to watch how this city recovers from a flood. I spoke to a man in church, Wayne, whose home was inundated up to the second level. I have heard variations on his story repeated dozens of times in the news and around the neighborhood.

On Wednesday morning, January 12, after the rain stopped, he returned to his home (they had evacuated) to assess the damage. As he stood there, shell-shocked and dazed, two cars pulled up. Out of each car, two men emerged. These two cars arrived there simultaneously by serendipity. The occupants of one car had never met the occupants of the other car.

They asked Wayne if he could use some help. Wayne, still in shock, said yes, he probably could.

For the next 8 hours, these strangers shovelled mud and swept water and carried out broken furniture (the couch was so water-logged it took all 5 men to carry it out) and pulled up ruined carpet and repaired what they could. Other strangers showed up with food but the working men kept going, politely declining the food.

From 9 am to 5 pm, these strangers worked their tails off, in mud and water and stink and mess. At the end of the day, they wished Wayne well, climbed back in their cars, and disappeared.

Two days later, the "official" city volunteers were finally able to get there (red tape being what it is) but at Wayne's they weren't really needed any more. There was still cleaning to be done but Wayne and his family could take care of that.

All over Brisbane, all over Queensland, the official response, while well-intentioned, was no match for the unofficial response. A lot of the clean-up / clean-out work in private homes and small businesses was done by neighbors and by strangers who just.....showed up.

Australians still need help. They still need money. God help them, they need tourists, desperately (our guest room is still wide open!). But when it came time to get right down to it and make it better immediately, they did it for themselves.

God bless them, every one.